Barcelona became the fourth city in the world to see the highest growth in US real estate investments in the first half of 2021, according to the CBRE consultancy.
Xavier Güell, director of CBRE’s Barcelona division, noted that the average investment has been around 110 million euros over the past five years, and this year it has grown by 250 million.
The most significant increases in US investment have occurred in Copenhagen, Sydney, and Hong Kong, apart from Barcelona.
Güell notes that investments from the United States have made a significant contribution to the development of the Barcelona office market, which in 2021 showed the best records in the last 14 years, second only to 2007, at the peak of the real estate boom. “We will end the third quarter with an accumulated investment in offices of 1.1 billion euros and even exceed the investment in 2019, which was already impressive,” said the director.
Guell notes that currently, 90% of investment in office space in Barcelona comes from international funds, which is already an unprecedented figure, while in 2016, this figure was only 25%.
The divisional director acknowledges a certain “bounce” effect on investments that could not be closed last year due to the pandemic. However, in other large office markets, such as Madrid, investments are still far from the 2019 level.
“Sometimes international investors value good market conditions much more than local ones: in recent years we have had a deficient number of vacancies and a significant increase in net hiring, as well as a significant increase in rents. At the same time, rent is still low compared to similar cities, which helps to open new companies,” the specialist says.
Thus, according to the consulting company, the average rent in the best buildings in Barcelona is about 28 euros per sq.m. per month, while in Madrid, an equally competitive city, it is 40 euros.
One of the strengths of the Barcelona property market, Guell explains, is its ability to attract new companies, especially from the tech sector, which already accounts for 35% of rental deals. These are companies in the field of information technology, video games, programming, e-commerce. These are the industries that have not been affected by the pandemic and are now actively developing.